Currently reading: Dunlop to introduce new specification BTCC tyre at Oulton Park
Tin-top tyre types tweaked ahead of this weekend's clash at Oulton Park

Dunlop is to introduce a new specification of tyre to the MSA British Touring Car Championship for the Oulton Park event this weekend.

The new ‘Dunlop Sport Maxx BTCC Medium’ tyre will replace the previous medium-specification tyre. It is designed to have improved stability under braking and even greater consistency throughout a race distance. The softer option tyre will remain unchanged.

Michael Butler, Dunlop’s BTCC manager, said: “Even though we are the sole supplier, we are always looking to introduce new developments that can benefit the teams and the racing. The new tyre uses new materials that have been proven in our successful GT Endurance racing programmes and we decided that applying these new technologies would benefit the BTCC tyre.”

The new tyre was tested on a range of cars at Snetterton in 2014 and at the Brands Hatch and Donington test days ahead of this season.

The soft compound will not change in 2015, said Butle. “We did see a bigger than expected difference between the two tyres at the recent Donington Park race, but this was due to colder than expected track conditions," he added.

“During the summer months, we expect the performance difference between the current soft and the new medium tyre to be similar to 2014. We will consider applying the same material changes to the soft tyre for 2016 if we find it is necessary after analysing the results from this season.”

The soft and medium tyre compounds will continue to be identified by white Dunlop letters (soft) and yellow and black Dunlop lettering (medium) on the sidewall.

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